Estucheon Stage 2 - HQ Brass Jadagna +1

I believe the sub craft takes away your t2, I recall people saying you need the sub crafts torque and/or apron or something like that to reach t1 or t2 otherwise it's just going to take a while.

Yeah it's 46 sub. you need to be 77 IE; Torque, support Apron and Goves.

Or stall

Doable, you can get the gloves without deleveling, but you have to break the 70 cap to obtain the apron (i think)

82+31 = 110 + Stall
46+31 = 70 + Torque + Support + Gloves + Apron

I think that's the only way you can accomplish it oh nope!

110 + shield + glasses + apron
70 + support + torque + gloves + hide stretcher
(disable gold stall)

So instead of farming all the items and waiting, I got impatient, I broke my cap for leather and took my leathercraft to 74. I have been trying for weeks with just dealing with tier 1 on my clubs and was ready to pull my hair out.
So today I said Eff it lets do it the crazy way.

1- Break LTW cap from 70 go to 74 =3 for advanced synth. this will drop your gold skill from 110 down to 106
2- Go farm them damn clubs.
3- I had a smithing mule in zone de-synthing everything.
4- Can despoil clubs as well as get them on a drop.
5- Before I made this change to my sub I was 1/5 for quest and made about 80 attempts.
6- After upping my tier on my subcraft bringing it to 77 with skill and Advanced imagry, I was able to knock out 4 High quality clubs in 15 synths total.
7- Now you may think GENO THAT IS CRAZY... No my friend crazy is killing Trolls for weeks and weeks to only come home empty handed and relying on luck.
8- After you Hq your 5 and get your key item, Visit the leatherworking Guild leader and tell her " I quit this job" She will bring your Leather back capped down to 70.
9- Head back to the guild and make your next tier shield and scream with excitement and have a beer.
10- Congrats on you next stage of shield.

In follow up, most would say why do that when you can just farm a Torque and farm the gloves with guild points and get a piece of furniture and then do imagry. If you already have the stuff you can skip that step, but this will save you weeks of time, and it will only take you a day or 2 to get back to 110 assuming you craft regularly.
Hope this helps.

That worked perfectly man! I got 5 +1s in around 11 crafts using Genoside's method.

Glad it worked for you

Just adding more context to this:

Took me about 35 combines with:

74 Leatherworking + 3 advanced synth support
106 Goldsmithing + 5 stall + 4 gear (apron, shades, torque)
Orvail ring + HQ chance +1 ring
Ionis
Coconut Rusk

Might have been unluckier than most; your mileage may vary.

I hate to necrobump an old thread, but where is the best place to farm pauldrons and vambraces off the trolls? I have gotten a few randoms out of Zhayolm and Halvung, but god damn is it very rare. Is there a better place or am I just screwed?

http://ffxidb.com/items/2160

http://ffxidb.com/items/2161

Doesn't look like you're going to have better chances anywhere else.

I picked the spot where cerberus spawns to get them. Theres enough of the proper job'd trolls around there where you can see a few repops start by the time you loop through them all

Bummer.... OK thanks Thorny!

Same spot I farmed them, but only certain Troll jobs drop the jadagna(s) IIRC. Think it was like WAR/DRK for sure, maybe MNK was the other?

Either way, it sucked. I did mine back when there was a bit of competition. Think it took me about 4 days of off and on farming/desynthing to get all I needed.


Oh and FYI (and I'm NOT saying this just because I have a Gold shield and don't want more competition) but on Bahamut there are around 10 or 11 GS Stage 4 shields out there, most of them RMT shields so all they do is craft. I wish someone had warned me before I started my final stage, I'd have made Alchemy or Smithing. Soveran +1 sells for super cheap and the AH is almost always full so it's constantly being undercut, the only jinxed items GS has that sell at all are Emicho +1 hands/body and they don't sell very often. Voodoo crown has like 5 or 6 people competing to sell it at all times. The Su3 items only 3 sell (Turms +1 head/hands/feet, but it only really sells for one job, RUN) and there is a JP crafter who I'm pretty sue RMTs now with at least 4 shields done (Milder/Castermild/Regulis) who bot spams Neak and has the market pretty much cornered on the Turms. Stikini rings are a joke since sparkling stones/Koh-I-Noor are 100% loss on break. So honestly, if I had to do it over again, no way I'd make a GS shield on this server.

For what it's worth, you trying to break into any crafting shield, you're already behind the game. They've already ruined it, for all of them.

There are shields made that actually aren't used, because of the state of the market. If those crafts saw a spike, they would use those shields more and other shields less.

But yeah, given a question of which is worst/most obvious/most etc gold is always the answer. First 110s, gold. First shields, gold. Most/best items, gold. Most useful, gold.

Gold is extremely boom/bust feast/famine it is NOT for the feint of heart. If you ain't first, you're wasting your effort, on all of them but gold more so.

let me give you a hypothetical. on the 10th they drop a new earring with 100% DA. it's weirdly a cooking synth. Would you lament that you hadn't started a cooking shield? or would you accept that there already exists 20 cooking shields that instantly stole any chance you had to make a profit.

get a shield for the right reason. Lockstyle!

That's disappointing to hear, but I trust you guys. I may have to take a step back for a minute and think if I want to proceed then. It's a huge investment to finish and I would hate to get nothing out of it.

I do those shields for 2 reason. One is player accomplishment, yea, i do because i want to do, and im willing to risk my own account to do that, and second, to make the crafts for my own mules. Mules need rostans, necks, Su2 gears, etc, so SUPPOSELY i have a garanteed economy by crafting those by myself in the future UNLESS for any reason the AH prices are below the costs to make it (meaning some known cheat is still going on).

Yeah that's a valid point. Honestly, my biggest reason for making shields was to craft my own gear for all 7 of my accounts, and I already have a couple of other shields in progress on alts. I wasn't necessarily looking to break into any market or make much profit (if any at all), that would just be a bonus.

But then there's also the time and gil investment to take into consideration.

If you aren't doing it for gil there really isn't any logic to it.

Time is money and if you're sinking a billion (opportunity cost) into it you're already down 8 su5 weapons before you even start. (I don't know what they cost now, just still running with the billion number)

You need many self crafted items if you sell zero to justify creating a shield. Unless you just want the fancy shield / lolaccomplishment

I've got gold shield. Let me tell you how much money each item I have has cost me that I crafted for myself. I'd like to preface that I'm happy that I made all this and signed each of these as a point of personal accomplishment.

Stikini Ring +1 x2 - I dumped at least 150m before the shield. After I dumped another 100m on Dark Matters and Tart Chains. I farmed all my Koh-i-noor (which is 100% loss on break). I had 48 Koh-i-noor last run, which is 48 attempts. I went 4/48, which is slightly bad luck... still, could have bought 2 from AH for 70m.

Crocea Mors - 200m in materials. 1 HQ2 from 200m in mats. I got the HQ2 on my very last synth, so came very close to complete bust. Could have bought the sword for 110m on AH.

Duelist Torque +2 - 150m in mats. I went 4/150m and actually made a profit. Kept my neck and sold x3 for 60m each. I made 30m.

Point I'm trying to make is... you're not going to save yourself insane amounts of gil unless you're getting pretty lucky. All of the dynamis medal synths required a good amount of luck to profit.

Man, that really puts it in perspective. I think Eiryl's right, it's just broken and if you weren't the first to make a shield, it's hard to justify the time and effort at this point. I don't suppose it's anything SE could fix, it's probably a playerbase problem? Materials cost too much?

Make one to have a fair start on the next major crafting update

Again you try reasoning with your logic but thats not true to many.

I can completely understand your PoV, its quite logic. But you fail to think everyone else will have same purpose of playing as you.

FYI, earning cash from gil isnt even worthwhile the time spent for some players.

Reverting your own logic to you, if youre playing for cash, it would be smarter just to find a better job.

If all things were created equal sure, i wasn't talking about money though.

You know, XI is passive income, bots run while you work. They run while you sleep. They run while you eat. it's not either/or, it's in addition to. This isn't about that.

I specifically said gil (I changed it from "money" to quantify the statement) If your goal is to make your own ***, it's wasted effort. If your goal is to sell enough to break even and make your own ***, it's wasted effort. If your goal is "idgaf I want mynameonit" then it's not logic, it's just a want, and you gotta do you.

You putting literally thousands of hours into something to "save gil" defeats the purpose.

I just told you that so you don't get punch-yourself-in-the-face frustrated like I did when mine was done (and there are twice as many GS shields now as there were when I was done with mine).

I also tried to tell myself, "Oh, I just like signing my own stuff." But as Drayco pointed out, that first time you blow through 140 mill in mats and make only (2) Futhark +2 torques....you don't keep one, you sell them both just to cover your costs and feel like you at least got some profit. Example: I've had my shield about 8 or 9 months and I still do not have a Futhark +2 torque made for my RUN.

Oh and if you think you can buy enough mats or collect enough to say, do the equivalent of 4 or 5 attempts with Su3, Su5 or torques, you are wasting your time and gil, every time. You have to go balls in to even have a hope of turning some profit. That's why the lower tiered stuff your shield can make is so important. Like Alchemy makes Amarlic. Right now, Jinxed Amralic is selling lights out (because Ethereal Squama is so high) but at LEAST you can get a decent return rate on jinxed/voodoo gear, so even if one of the mats is pricey, you're gonna win in the end. So, since Gold's only real "lower" tiered synths that can sell is Soveran and it doesn't sell for much combined with the market being flooded on Bahamut, you may not sell a single pieces for 2-3 weeks unless you do a major undercut and with what eschite ore is going for now, only the RMT can afford to undercut. I mean, unless you multi-acct bot an Escha NM all day that drops ore and doesn't cost as much as the ore does to pop. That's why the Mild clan bots Neak, since you can pop it with Tolba Shells.

All of you had great input, and exactly the kind I needed to hear to be honest. I want to hear what the experience is really like for those of you that are there, and I'm sorry for you guys as it sounds painful.

Honestly, I have really enjoyed working on the shield and I enjoy crafting, it's something different to do than just constantly go kill stuff. I suppose I'm at a crossroads now as to where to go from here.

I don't regret making my shield at all. After re-reading my above post, I made it sound like these shields won't make you any gil. That is definitely not true. Making Voodoo pieces is soooo much easier with a shield.

The glory of these shields is not the HQ rate, it's the materials you save. The enchantment allows your materials to stretch way further. So instead of losing 8 materials on a NQ, you will lose 0~8 materials per break.

It's very noticable. Before I would get 4 stacks of each material to make HQs. Now, I usually only get 2 stacks and I make more HQs than before the shield.

These shields are the absolute worst grind ever put in this game... but they are worth it. If you're enjoying the road, then stay on it.

Original level 75 Mythics were the worst. Now back on topic, sorry.

Brah. 30,000 alex (and the other stuff) ain't got ***on crafting 100,000 spheres and then "crafting" them again for points.

Even counting the OG ToM trials still doesn't even come close.

My friend was really unhappy with his gold shield that he had to go and make another. This time alchemy.

Im sure, before ambuscade and oboro, nothing in this game came close of glowing a weapon.

And even up till today, i never saw an instrument or a shield glowing.

(Maybe once i partied with an ochain glowed but it was to in the past im not even sure it was true)